It's not about the kids. It's not about the job. It's not about religion or politics.
Unless, of course, I want it to be.

9.04.2005

Distractions

As adults its easy to get pulled into the chaos of the world around us. As parents, our children have a way of pulling us back into our own little microcosm. They have a way of reminding us that sometimes we need to step back from the big picture and just focus on the little unimportant things.

My kids have done that for me this past week. With Internet news outlets and cable TV it'd be easy to get sucked into the vortex of "all horror, all the time." It'd be easy to become consumed by the sorrow. Yet my children have held back the onslaught by being their very unique, naive, adorable selves.--While at the craft store the other day I broke down and picked up pieces of what will become Meg's Halloween costume. She's going to be a black cat. I'm fully aware that Halloween is two months away - but the last time I waited to buy any holiday related stuff at a craft store, I was Thanksgiving craft kit-less in mid-October.

Anyway, we bought a set of furry ears on a headband and a fluffy, fake-furry boa that I will convert into a tail and a neck ruffle for her. She clearly loved rubbing her face in the feather boas on display. She liked having them draped around her shoulders so they tickled her neck and cheeks. So I bought her two - a black one for her outfit and a white one to play with.

When we got home, I placed the white one on her. She got all smiley and giddy to have it. She played for a while but it became clear her wardrobe addition wasn't going to stay on, so I took it off. I started down the hallway to put it away in her room. Megan moved as quickly as she could - almost all out running behind me as she yelled in her very well rehearsed, pissed-off-toddler voice, "BOA! BOA! BOA! MAH BOA!"

--Logan wasn't with us when we purchased the cat-supplies. He did, however, get a good look at them today when the two of them located the bag I thought I had hidden away. Megan has become fairly adapt at putting things on her head/face like sunglasses and headbands. She proved it again with her cat ears. I adjusted them slightly for her so the band wasn't sticking in her ear. She took off giggling, prancing around the house with her ears on. Logan taught her to meow.

"Mahow, mahow, mahow," she says, not quite able to get the long e out well.

Then Logan wanted the ears or at least a costume. I've been working on him for Halloween lately because he was hellbent on being a character I felt was impossible to recreate. (No, don't offer to help. I am too lazy to even try to work this one out.) Instead, I've been encouraging him to be a different Rescue Hero than he'd originally talked about. That seems to be what he's settled on for now - Billy Blazes, a firefighter. He also wanted to be a lion, "just in case we can't find the right Billy stuff," he said. Or maybe a dog. Or a tiger. Or maybe even wear his Superman pajamas.

We headed back to the craft store. I wanted to preserve the cat ears by providing another option. We're now the proud owners of a tiger ear headband, a snow leopard headband, a princess hat (complete with long flowing netting), and a purple foam crown. Not to mention to more boas. Did you know that Logan's tiger has a neon green tail?

We spent the afternoon trading ears and wearing feather boa tails as we chased each other roaring. Logan decided to be a dog on a neon green fluffy leash. Megan walked him. Then the dog broke free and ran away. So Megan and I had to find him and track him down. They both found such delight in this game, you couldn't help but catch the giggles from them

Of course the only downside - Megan has given up, at least for this evening, calling Logan nothing more than "brahba" (brother). Right, yeah. Now she calls him "dawg" (Dog.)